Iron Shadows
by jenniator
Summary: Tall, jet black hair, stoic face, piercing red eyes, Dragon Slayer. Levy had only known one male who fit this category – at least until she met him. Rated T for language. Rating might go up if people want lemons!
1. Men are Infuriating!

**Authors Notes:** AHOY! LET'S FIND ONE PIECE AND BECOME PIRATE KING! Oh wait, wrong fandom. Let me start again...

AYE SIR!

There we go(;  
Here's the first chapter of my new story, **_Iron Shadows_**. This is GaLe but with a sprinkle of another sexy Dragon Slayer named Rogue. Maybe a little NaLu if you squint.

As usual, I do not own Fairy Tail!

Enjoy and R&R :)

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**Chapter 1 -** Men are Infuriating!

After the Grand Magic Games and the battle of dragons, the mages of Fairy Tail came back to Magnolia surprisingly suffering only minor damage. They all decided to take a little break, many people going out on small missions or just gathering at the guild. Levy took this time to finally move out of her room in Fairy Hills. She had found a beautiful place that was fairly close to the guild and plenty of space for her books. It was a two-bedroom apartment with a spectacular view of the city – it was cozy and perfect. She had filled one of the bedrooms with bookshelves and books (shocker) and the other bedroom was for her bed and another bookshelf for a collection of her favorite books she liked to keep close.

She was elated; she had a home to call her own and a place where should could read without any interruptions.

At least, until Mira and Lisanna began to "help" her.

Levy opened the door to her apartment tiredly, sighing as she removed her high heels and tossed it on the nearby couch. Men were so infuriating! She had come back from another blind date set up by the Strauss sisters, both claiming that he was _perfect_ for her. Yeah, they had claimed that for the last three guys too.

This date didn't really work out either. She was on a roll here; maybe she was meant to be alone and single forever? A picture of her surrounded by only books and multiple cats popped up in her mind. It didn't sound too bad...

No. It did sound bad. Why couldn't she find someone that could sweep her off her feet and take her in his arms while kissing her until she couldn't breathe and take her to his castle and love her until she couldn't feel...

Yeah, she needed to stop with the romance books.

She shook off her dress with a huff and pulled on her pajamas. The date was running smoothly in the beginning. At first glance her date was charming and fairly attractive; he had navy blue hair and beautiful aqua eyes to match. But halfway into their meal she found that he was extremely arrogant and he had the nerve to stare at their waitress' ass blatantly in front of her! Unbelievable!

She had bit her lip and begrudgingly tried her best to go through with her date without trying to burn the man to ashes. But when he walked her home and wrapped his arms around her for a kiss, she hastily said goodbye and slammed the door in his face. Hard.

Hopefully she wasn't going to hear from him again.

Levy checked the time: 7:00 p.m. She groaned and crawled into her bed trying to erase every memory of the guys she's had a date with for the past week. She didn't know why she even accepted these dates.

In the eighteen years Levy had lived she had never had a certain "type" that she was attracted too. Like any other single female, strong and good looking was on her list but she had never had a straightforward "type" she swooned over. Maybe that was her problem. She didn't really know what she wanted.

Levy shook her head from her frustrating thoughts and curled up on her bed, hugging a pillow and wallowing in her own sadness. The one person she was actually attracted to was as dense as Natsu. She had dropped hints over and over again but he still didn't get it. She growled and threw her pillow at her bedroom door, imagining the Iron Dragon Slayers face.

Why were men so damn challenging?

She pulled the covers over herself and tried to fall asleep, hoping that maybe with some sleep all her boy problems would be solved.

Yeah, as if.

As she was about to fall sleep, she heard rough knocks on her door. She frowned and checked the clock. It was almost 8, who could be here?

She yawned and rubbed the sleep off her eyes and made her way to the door. She stood there dumbfounded when she found a stoic faced Dragon Slayer and his cat on her doorway.

"Gajeel?"

* * *

Gajeel growled as his cat forcefully ran a brush through his hair.

"Watch where ya pull, ya damn cat!"

Lily snorted and pulled even harder, finally getting the brush through the tangles of thick black hair.

"If you would brush frequently we wouldn't have this problem." Lily scolded but received only a grunt in response.

"What's the point of this anyways, we're only going to see the bookworm." Gajeel complained, chewing on a piece of iron obnoxiously. Lily began to run the brush through his hair again, ignoring the growling mage beneath him.

"Don't you want to look decent for her at least?" Lily retorted, hiding a small grin as he noticed a red blush paint his partner's face.

"Wh-why would I want to do that?" Gajeel looked to his left to cover his face from the cat. Lily rolled his eyes; he knew they both had feelings for each other and couldn't understand why no one made a move. He yanked the brush one last time and finally finished brushing the mage's hair. He let out a yell of victory.

"I have conquered the monster that is Gajeel's hair!" Lily bowed at the air as if there were people clapping for him, but his imagination was cut short when Gajeel threw a pillow at the his face.

"Let's go already." Gajeel pulled on a black v-neck that complimented his chiseled body and his usual khaki pants. He ran a hand through his hair, surprised that it was actually soft and not its usual knotted mess. He flung open the door to his home and stomped out. Lily scowled at his partner's impatience but quickly followed, closing the door behind him.

"Wait, do you even know where she lives?"

"...yeah."

"Gajeel, how many times do I have to tell you. Stalking is a bad habit."

"Shut it, damn cat!"

* * *

When they got to the front of her apartment door, Gajeel didn't hesitate to bang her door wildly. Lily just rolled his eyes at his rudeness. A soft click was heard and the door opened to a very tired looking solid script mage. Gajeel had to bite his tongue to control an incoming nosebleed.

She was wearing a large t-shirt that clung on to her lean body and reached halfway up her thighs. Her hair was ruffled as if she was just in bed and she let out a small yawn. Her eyes were halfway open and she was rubbing the sleep off them with her hands. _So fucking adorable_.

"Gajeel?" Oh god even her sleep-induced voice was adorable. Gajeel couldn't seem to form any words from his lips and stood paralyzed there paralyzed, but Lily jumped to the rescue and spoke for him.

"Hello Levy. Seems as if you were sleeping. Is this a bad time?" Levy smiled at his politeness but opened her door all the way.

"No, it's all right, please come in!" She glanced at the still frozen dragon slayer and giggled shyly.

"Are you feeling okay Gajeel?"

When Gajeel nodded but didn't make any effort to move, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him into her home. While Levy was closing the door, Lily punched Gajeel lightly on the thigh helping him regain his composure. Lily threw him a "get a hold of yourself" look and casually walked over to the couch and made himself comfortable. Gajeel scowled at Lily and followed after, plopping himself down next to him. When Levy turned back to her guests grinned softly at the sight; it was unusually endearing seeing the usually brash man cuddling next to a small cat. Although she knew Lily could be just as ferocious as the man next to him. She waved off her thoughts and made her way next to Gajeel.

"So, why are you guys here?" She questioned, staring at Gajeel's suspiciously brushed hair. Of all the times she had seen him she had never seen his hair so perfectly kept.

Before Lily could answer, Gajeel frowned and scrunched his nose.

"Bookworm, you _reek_."

"Excuse me?!"

"No, I mean you smell like..." Levy tensed up as he aggressively grabbed her and sniffed around, reminding her of a dog. "You smell like a guy." He concluded.

A blush had formed on Levy's face at the close proximity between them.

"Oh, it's probably because-," she stopped herself when she remembered her date grabbing her for a kiss. She turned another shade of red. She couldn't say _that_. "You're probably smelling the guy I was with a couple hours ago...a date." Levy's breath hitched as she saw a flicker of anger in his crimson eyes.

"Don't worry he didn't try anything. I kind of slammed the door in his face before he could." She hastily reassured the mage as Lily chuckled beside them. Gajeel let go of her, grumbling something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "how dare he touch her". She raised her eyebrow but brushed it off.

"So, why are you two here?" She asked again and Gajeel looked at Lily then back at her. He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper and placed it on the coffee table in front of them.

Levy reached out and read it, her eyes widening.

"'Help wanted: catch several bandits. Beware, their leader is a strong mage. Reward is 1,000,000 jewels.' One million jewels just to take out a group of thugs?!" Levy exclaimed looking wide eyed at Gajeel.

"Yup." Gajeel nodded.

"If you're up for it you can partner up with us, Levy. We'll evenly split the reward of course." Lily told her. Levy beamed and pulled Lily into a tight hug.

"Of course I'll go!" Gajeel laughed at Lily's face in her tight grasp.

"That's settled then. We'll pick ya up at your place tomorrow around noon. Don't sleep in, Shorty." Gajeel teased, knowing Levy's habit of staying up late while reading.

"I promise I won't." Levy beamed up at him. She heard Lily let out a noise of discomfort so she let him out from her grasp, tossing him an apologetic look. She smiled at the two again and stood up.

"Well since you guys are here let me grab some snacks!" She skipped her way to the kitchen and grabbed a kiwi for Lily and a couple other snacks for herself and Gajeel. She pondered for a moment and wrote out "Solid Script: Iron" and placed the iron on the tray as well. She came back to the two mages and placed the snacks on the table. Gajeel immediately dug into his iron while Lily's eyes sparkled at the sight of the kiwi. Levy looked at the contented boys and smiled. She pulled out a deck of cards from the drawer beneath the table and began to shuffle them.

"Now, who's up for some card games?"


	2. Awkward

**Author's Notes:** Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, I had finals this week and absolutely no time at all to write.

But I finally finished!

Remember I own nothing except for the plot.

Please review! :)

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**Chapter 2** - Awkward

"You two were cheating!" Gajeel complained as they made their way onto the train.

The three mages received glares from those who were boarding the train, some in fear of the pouting dragon slayer and others in anger of the large man's loud outburst. Levy and Lily looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Gajeel had been complaining about his "manipulating cat" and "sorcery using shrimp" all the way to the train station. They had played multiple card games at Levy's the night before and Gajeel had won absolutely none while the others traded off some wins.

"We didn't cheat, you're just bad at cards." Lily retorted, resting himself in Levy's arms. Gajeel glared at his cat for a moment but looked away in defeat when Lily proceeded to ignore him.

"Tsk, whatever."

Levy couldn't help but giggle at Gajeel's childishness. Who knew the big bad dragon slayer actually pouted over card games? Gajeel grunted in irritation as they entered their room, taking their luggage and tossing them briskly on the compartment above. Levy took a seat next to the window as her giggling ceased, although a bright smile still painted her face. Lily followed in next, placing himself on Levy's lap. She smiled and began to pet Lily and he let out a soft noise of content. Although Lily was an Exceed he was still a cat, he loved being petted (especially by Levy since he received scowls from his partner which he used to tease the man later). Gajeel, much to Lily's amusement, tossed him a small scowl before he reached up to the compartment above and pulled out several iron nails from his backpack to munch on. This caused his torso to stretch and his shirt to rise up, giving Levy a great view of Gajeel's abs. Levy had to restrain from drooling and tore her eyes away from the dragon slayer's torso just in time as he plopped down next to Levy. Her face was slightly pink which caused Gajeel to raise an eyebrow.

She kicked herself mentally and gave a weak smile to Gajeel. She really needed to get a hold of herself. Lily softly chuckled beneath her; he had seen everything.

Gajeel looked between her and his cat but just shrugged and tossed several of the iron nails into his mouth, savoring the flavor as tried to ignore the churning in his stomach. God, he hated trains.

The mission required them to go to a distant town about three hours away from Magnolia. Much to Gajeel's protests, Levy had managed to convince the irate dragon slayer to ride the train. It was the fastest way and she definitely did not want to walk all the way there. Levy had offered to ask Wendy to cast Troia on him but Gajeel had rejected it immediately grumbling something about Elfman calling him "unmanly".

Levy could see discomfort written all over Gajeel's face as the train began to move. She couldn't help but pity the man; he was strong enough to take on Natsu and even Laxus but he couldn't handle a little transportation. Well, it was a dragon slayer thing after all. A thought of researching cures for motion sickness crossed her mind.

But as an uncomfortable groan arose from the man beside her, she kept her thoughts to herself and tentatively reached her hand out and placed it on Gajeel's shoulder. He looked over at her concerned face and tried, but failed, to look like he felt normal. But his stomach churned and protested at the movements of the train and it was taking all of his energy to keep from retching. Levy bit her lip in worry when he began to clench his stomach in pain. He let out another noise of discomfort and Lily, not wanting to get thrown up on (which had happened one too many times on several other missions), made his way to the seat across from Levy. He made himself comfortable on the velvet seat and closed his eyes for a nap so he could drown away the pitiful noises coming from his partner.

Levy squeezed Gajeel's shoulder lightly trying to comfort him as she watched the sick man in worry. How could she help him? Then a light bulb came on in her head. She remembered what Lucy had said since she the same problem with Natsu and she flushed a light red.

A massage. The blonde celestial mage had told her that when Natsu began to complain about his stomach she would just run her fingers through his hair. Levy recalled the conversation and remembered that Lucy said the fire dragon slayer immediately stopped his moping and always felt better. At that time, Levy had teased the celestial mage but watching Gajeel in pain made her understand her best friend's intentions. She felt embarrassed to even try to do that for Gajeel but she swallowed the feeling of inadequacy and decided that she should at least try it.

She slowly moved her hand from Gajeel's shoulder to his hair (which suspiciously looked like it had been brushed again). Gajeel didn't seem to notice until it began to softly massage his scalp. He tensed up in shock at the sudden feeling, but movements of her fingertips on his scalp caused a small moan to slip from his lips. He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand, his sick stomach immediately settling as her hands softly caressed his scalp.

Levy's face flared red as Gajeel pushed onto her hand but she didn't stop her ministrations.

"Shrimp, where'd you learn this?" Levy jolted slightly at his deep voice but was relieved to see that Gajeel hadn't pushed her away. Plus, his skin had returned to its usual olive tone instead of a sickly pale.

She cleared her throat and used her other hand to run it through his hair too.

"Well, Lucy told me that Natsu would always feel better when she did this so I thought maybe it could help you too..." Her voice trailed off as Gajeel's head suddenly fell onto her lap. She let out a small squeal as her face turned deeper than Ezra's hair.

Gajeel was on her lap.

Gajeel was_ on her lap_.

_Gajeel_ was _on_ her _lap_.

Her brain was buzzing with alarms as she watched the sleeping mage on her lap. Not really knowing what to do she continued her soft caresses on his head. Her heart was thumping insanely but she couldn't help but crack a small smile. Gajeel looked peaceful in his sleep; his usual scowl gone and replaced with a look of content. His lips were slightly parted and his piercings rose and fell with every breath he took. She calmed herself and grinned softly at the man beneath her. She hummed in happiness as she wove her hands in his dark silky hair. Her eyes began to feel heavy and she let out a small yawn.

She began to feel sleep consume her, the soft breathing of the man beneath her and the distant hum of the train lulling her to sleep.

"Goodnight." She softly whispered.

* * *

_Mmm. So warm. And squishy. This is so nice. It smells good too. Like ink...and lavender. Is that a bit of iron too? Mmm, ink and iron. Smells delicious. Wait is that Shrimp? Oi, Shrimp! Shrimp! Shrimp…? Wait, why do you have black ears? Is that a tail? Huh? When did you get so small? I mean you were always small gihihihi. No wait is that a scar on your eye? You kind of smell too. Like...Lily. Wait Shorty why do you smell like Lily? Eh? Lily?_

Gajeel's eyes opened in a flash as a mental picture of an unusual morphing between his cat and the shrimp was engraved in his mind. A chill ran up his spine as he recalled the picture. Freaky as hell.

Gajeel suddenly felt someone shake him and his eyes adjusted to the face of his cat. Lily had placed a finger on his lips, signaling to Gajeel to be quiet but he could still see the sly grin.

"We're here." Lily whispered, but an evil glint reflected off his Exceed's eyes. Gajeel frowned as he took in his surroundings. Wait, when did the world turn sideways? Then he felt something warm and soft on his cheek and it hit him. He abruptly jumped from his position on Levy's lap and flushed into a deep red.

He had slept on Levy's lap.

_Slept_ on _Levy's_ _lap_.

Lily, who was thoroughly enjoying Gajeel's look of disbelief, was rolling on the ground silently laughing his ass off. Gajeel furiously whispered for his cat to shut up, not wanting to wake the sleeping solid script mage. Although, it was a bit too late. Levy had already awoken from the sudden loss of heat on her lap. She flushed a deep red as her sleep hazy mind processed what had happened before she fell asleep. Lily laughed even harder, causing the embarrassed dragon slayer to lunge at him.

"Sh-shut it damn cat!"

Lily just sidestepped the attack and opened his wings to get away from his flustered partner. He continued to laugh at the two mages and quickly escaped out of the small room, chanting something about fresh gossip for Mira. Gajeel growled at the fleeing cat but reverted his attention back to the bluenette. He rubbed his neck with a hand awkwardly.

"Thanks for ya know, the massage thingy Shrimp." Gajeel confessed, still refusing to make eye contact with her.

"Ah, it was no problem." Levy responded quietly, swallowing a small lump growing in her throat. She stood up from her seat and played absentmindedly with her bandanna, biting the inside of her lip. Gajeel immediately resented the awkward atmosphere he had created between them and sighed.

"Look Shorty, I don't want to make things awkward during the mission so let's just forget about it."

As Levy finally looked up, she couldn't help but feel a sharp pain in her chest. She swallowed her feeling of disappointment and hid it with a small grin.

"Yeah, it's not that big of a deal anyways, right? I mean, I heard Natsu does it all the time with Lucy and they're friends." She forced herself to smile, praying that Gajeel wouldn't see her real feelings. To her relief, Gajeel nodded in agreement.

"Yup, heard that flame brain actually burned her skirt to crisp once, gihihi. Now let's go Shrimp. I'm hungry." Gajeel began to reach for his backpack in the compartment above them while Levy puffed out her cheeks.

"How are you hungry again!"

"I'm a man! Men need food."

"No, you're an animal. Pretty sure there's a hobo living in your stomach," Levy retorted back and eyed his stomach. "Actually, maybe three hobos."

Levy broke into giggles at the thought and a scowl began to form on Gajeel's face.

"You callin' me fat, Shrimp?"

Levy didn't even hear him because she began to laugh hysterically.

"Shut it, Shrimp! Don't make me shut you up." Gajeel's threat fell on deaf ears as Levy began to tear up from laughing so hard.

"That's it!" Gajeel growled and jumped on the laughing mage, beginning to tickle her.

"No! Stop it! Gajeel, no!" Levy gasped in between giggles, tears threatening to pour as he continued to tickle her.

"Take it back then Shorty!" Gajeel continued to tickle her, showing absolutely no mercy.

"I'm -laugh- sorry!" Levy squirmed beneath Gajeel's fingers. He finally stopped and watched as she wiped away her tears from her beaming face.

"Damn straight you're sorry!" Gajeel laughed his signature laugh as Levy stuck her tongue out.

"Tickling me isn't fair!"

"All's fair in protecting your pride, Shorty. I ain't fat." He responded, his lip curving as Levy scrunched her nose in distaste.

"Well, you're heavy though." Levy whispered, a small blush forming on her face. During his little attack he had ended up on top of Levy, her legs between his. Before he could answer, Lily flew in.

"If you two lovebirds are done we really need to get going." Lily teased, not even attempting to hide his grin. Both Levy and Gajeel flushed to a deep scarlet as they scrambled to stand back up.

"We aren't lovebirds!" They yelled in unison. Lily smirked as he flew out of the room again.

It was going to be a long mission.

* * *

Ta-dah! Fluff, fluff and more fluff in this chapter!

Still no entrance of Rogue yet but he will be making his way in this story in the next chapter :)

Please don't forget to review! xx


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